New York Care Congress: Changing the way we care |

The New York Care Congress brought together over 500 home care workers, seniors, people with disabilities, faith leaders, elected officials, and advocates to improve the quality of both home care and home care jobs.

As a lead coordinator of the Caring Across Generations campaign, we are building a powerful movement to create thousands of quality home care jobs and transform the way we care for each other in New York and throughout the United States. Currently, our home care system fails to ensure quality care for those who need it ? and it also fails to ensure fair compensation for care workers. As baby boomers age, and a growing number of people with disabilities choose home care, the demand for home care is expected to skyrocket, challenging our broken home care system. But if we could ensure dignity for workers and access for those in need of care, we have a tremendous opportunity to create an estimated 2 million quality jobs while providing our loved ones with high-quality, affordable options that increase their independence.

This bold vision materialized at last month?s New York Care Congress. The impressive turnout at this townhall gathering reflected the incredible momentum that the campaign picked up this spring, as over 40 organizations joined the growing New York Care Council, and co-anchors Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and Domestic Workers United (DWU) energized their memberships around the issue.

We heard directly from workers, seniors, people with disabilities, and family members, who shared their compelling stories about the challenges they currently face and their hopes for change. We heard from national Caring Across Generations co-directors Sarita Gupta & Ai Jen Poo, who emphasized the possibilities of creating millions of good new jobs and strengthening the supports for families who rely on home care services. SEIU 1199?s Minerva Pe?a spoke about some of the victories home care workers have won and announced that her union stood in solidarity with Caring Across Generations. David Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York, spoke about the importance of uplifting home care workers in the struggle to alleviate poverty in New York City. Sarah Jones, a playwright and performer, expressed her solidarity through an unforgettable series of humorous and stirring monologues.

The connections that were made at the New York Care Congress have laid a solid foundation for the road ahead. We are building the New York Care Council, a growing network of organizations and individual supporters, and we?re asking participants to broaden the conversation into their own communities. This summer, we?ll be building a base of support for Caring Across Generations with a series of 100 Care Connections, a series of meetings taking place all over New York, from religious institutions to senior centers. The meetings will deepen the campaign?s engagement by reaching over 1,000 New Yorkers through conversations about care.

Source: http://www.alignny.org/posts/campaign/2012/07/new-york-care-congress-changing-the-way-we-care/

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